Mobile industrial suction cleaner



Feb. 14, 1961 M. c. THOMPSON MOBILE INDUSTRIAL SUCTION CLEANER Fil dMarch 19, 1959 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Feb. 14, 1961 Q THOMPSON 2,971,210

MOBILE INDUSTRIAL SUCTION CLEANER Filed March 19, 1959 3 Sheets-Sheet 2INVENTOR. MILES COURTNEY THOMPSON ATTOREY 1961 M. c. THOMPSON MOBILEINDUSTRIAL SUCTION CLEANER 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed March 19, 1959 up" 23aINVENTOR. MILES COURTNBK THOMPSON United States Patent C F MOBILEINDUSTRIAL SUCTION CLEANER Miles Courtney Thompson, 1022 N. EdgefieldSt., Dallas 8, Tex.

Filed Mar. 19, 1959, Ser. No. 800,508

Claims. (Cl. 15-346) The present invention relates to an improved mobilecleaner of the vacuum type for floor surfaces and the like and,particularly, for truck and lorry trailers, freight cars and docks,although it is susceptible of other uses.

While it is well known that various types of vacuum cleaning deviceshave been proposed and used for most all purposes, both domestic andindustrial, there still remains a need and want for a very simple andrelatively inexpensive vacuum cleaner that will gather effectivelylitter of all sorts, dirt and dust from cracks, crevices, grooves anddepressions, as well as from relatively flat surfaces, in a minimum oftime, thus reducing labor costs and the time a vehicle is being detainedfor cleaning prior to reloading or re-routing.

The improvement of this invention has for its main aim and object theprovision of a very simple and positively acting construction for avacuum cleaner that will fulfill the needs above mentioned,

To accomplish this object, the important feature of the inventiveimprovement resides in the overall arrangement of the suction hooddischarging directly into a suctioncreating impeller which has a shortarcuate conduit discharging directly into a collection bag orreceptacle, said discharge conduit having a forced-air take-oil inadvance of the collector and so positioned as to deliver a forced blastof air, devoid of litter dirt and the like, to a jet nozzle so arrangedrelatively to the hood as to dislodge litter, dust and other particlesor articles lodged in crevices, cracks, grooves and depressions, in thesurface being cleaned, in a manner that will be drawn through the hoodand into the impeller and discharged into said collector, thus resultingin a compact, mobile, relatively lightweight, durable and inexpensivecleaning device having a minimum of parts and most eflicient for itspurposes.

The above and other objects and features of the improvement of thisinvention will be apparent from the following detailed description ofthe same and as will be distinctly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawings, which illustrate the cleaning device of this inventionin the manner it is at present devised:

Figure l is a side elevation of the cleaning device of the presentinvention;

Figure 2 is a top plan of the device shown in Figure 1;

Figure 3 is an enlarged vertical sectional view and taken substantiallyon line 3-3 of Figure 1;

Figure 4 is an enlarged horizontal sectional view and takensubstantially on line 4-4 of Figure 3;

Figure 5 is an enlarged vertical sectional view through the hood andimpeller and taken substantially on line 5-5 of Figure 3 in thedirection of the arrows; and

Figure 6 is an enlarged vertical sectional view through the hood andimpeller casing to illustrate a modified form.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, in which like character ofreference refers to similar and like parts, the reference character Hdesignates generally a cleaning head secured at its back side 23b to anopposing vertically disposed supporting plate 10 by bolts or screws 11,said 2,971,210 Patented Feb. 14,195;

'supporting plate 10 having a horizontal plate 12 extending from theother or rear side thereof and is of a length (about 12 inches)sufficient only to provide a platform for a motor 13. The plate 12 hasits forward end secured to the plate 10 below its center, preferably bya weldment, and is braced by triangular blocks 14 welded to adjacentportions of the plates 10 and 12. An axle 15 is disposed horizontallyalong the rear edge of the plate 12 and may be secured thereto by aweldment and/or by looped straps 16 as indicated in Figure 5. The endsof the axle 15 project beyond the plate 12 and carry a traction wheel17, respectively. The motor 13 may be either a gasoline or otherfuel-burning motor or may be an electric motor suitably positioned andsecured to the platform plate 12, although a conventional gasolinemotor, of the type employed on lawn mowers, is shown in the drawings.

A pair of elongated and spaced tubular bars 18 extend rearwardly andupwardly from the platform 12 for a convenient height to provide handlesby which the operator may push or pull or otherwise guide and manipulatethe cleaning device. The lower ends of the handle bars 18 are removablysecured by bolts 19 to the under side of the platform 12 and aremaintained in spaced relation by cross-brace bars 20 welded to thehandle bars. A brace bar 21 may have one end looped around a cross brace20, as at 21a, and its other end secured to the motor 13, as at 211:, togive additional rigidity to the structure.

The cleaning head H consists of an impeller, in the form of a fan 22,and a suction hood 30 carried directly by the impeller and divergingfrom the intake opening of the impeller. The fan 22 is, preferably, on ahorizontal axis and has rectangular blades enclosed in a circular casing23. A discharge extension 24 projects for a short distance and somewhattangentially from a point on the circumference of the casing 23 and thefront wall 23 of the casing is provided with an intake opening 25substantially concentric with the axis of the fan 22, the crosssectional areas of both the intake opening .25 and of the dischargeextension 24 being predetermined by the size of the fan 22 for, creatingthe required suction for any given size of the cleaning device. The endwalls 23 and 23b of the casing are slightly spaced from the side edgesof the fan blades, the fan being so disposed in the casing that theouter ends of the fan blades are closer to the inner surfacecircumferential wall of the casing at a point immediately past itsdischarge or exhaust extension 24in the direction of rotation of thefanthan at any other point, so as to permit bulky particles or articlesto be drawn in by the fan and blown upwardly and outwardly of the fancasing.

A relatively short elbow-type conduit 26 is suitably connected to theouter end of the discharge extension 24 and is of the same interiorcross-sectional area as said extension and is, preferably, a e bow, thearc of which is on the same radius. The outer end of the conduit 26 isflanged, at 26a, and adapted to have telescoped thereover the end of anelongated collection bag or sack 27 detachably secured thereto in anysuitable manner, such as by means of a split band 28, while the otherend of the sack is provided with a book 29 that removably engages overthe upper cross-brace member 20 of the handle bars 18. The sack 27 is,preferably. of a textile fabric, woven or otherwise, constructed toreceive and retain dust, dirt and other particles delivered thereinto,while permitting air, under pressure, within the sack to filter throughthe interstices thereof, such bags being conven tional and available onthe market.

The suction hood 30 is semi-pyramidal in form and comprises front, backand side walls. The back of the of the impeller casing 23 and its frontand side walls diverge downwardly from the back wall to form a suctionopening or mouth 300 at the bottom of the hood, the rear wall beingformed with an'opening 3012 near its upper end and of the same dimensionas andregistering with the intake opening 25 of the fan casing 23. Theside walls of the hood are considerably narrower than its front and backwalls in order to provide a relatively wide suction mouth of sulficientdepth between the front and back walls of the hood as will permit thepassage therethrough of the type of litter usually encountered in thecleaning operations for which this device is intended, this litter beingfunneled by thehood directly into the impeller .Which shreds it orbreaks large pieces into smaller sizes.

One of the principal features of this invention is the manner in whichan air blast is provided at the mouth 36a of the hood for the purpose ofdislodging the litter or other objects or particles from crevices,grooves and the like 'in said surface being cleaned. in the presentimprovemenhthis is accomplished by providing along and at each lower endof the front and rear walls of the hood 34} a tapered pipe 31, havingspaced perforations 32 along its length to provide air-jet nozzles, asshown more particularly in Figs. 3 and 5. it is preferred that thesepipes 31 be within the hood and, to this end, the walls of the hood areinturned to provide lateral flanges 30 upon and against which the pipes31 rest and are secured by weldments 33 or by straps. The larger ends ofthe pipes 31 extend through an end wall of the hood and are connected bya T-pipe coupling 34, which coupling is connected through a flexibletubing 35 to an an air-pressure take-off 36 on the discharge conduit 26.The perforations 32 in the tapered pipes 31 are positioned so as todirect opposing jets of an air-blast along the entire width of thesuction mouth 30a and downwardly from opposite wa ls at about 45relative to the surface being cleaned. The air-blast from one pipe 31impinges on the surface, being cleaned, at a spaced distance in front oradvance of the point of impingement of the blast from the other pipe 31,as shown in Fig. 5, thus lifting the ends of particles or other litterfrom opposite directions to dislodge them from crevices, grooves ordepressions and the suction force of the fan 22 draws suchlitterupwardly into the hood 30 through the fan casing 23 and delivers itthrough the discharge conduit 26 and into the collection bag or sack 27.

It has been found that, if the air, under pressure, is taken from theelbow-conduit 26 (of the formation above described) through its arcuatewa l x of greater radius and at about degrees from the beginning of thecurve, with respect to the direction of flow through said conduit,sufficient back pressure builds up in the device (when the collector 27is in place and the fan 22 is operating) as to cause a continuous flowof air through the blast-jet openings 32 for the purposes describedabove and said blast air will'be free of litter. particles and heavvdust without the need of a screen or filter at said take-oft. Theelimination of such screens or filters is of great advantage becausethey become clogged and'require'frequent cleaning. I have also foundthat if the take-oft is p aced at other points in the conduit 26, thesame results are not obtained. Accordingly, the take-off 36 isillustrated as positioned in the manner just described and as can beobserved in Figs. 3 and 4. This arrangement greatly simplifies priorconstruction where blast-jets 'of air have been proposed or used. Thejet-nozzle pipes 31 are tapered so as to equalize the air pressurethroughout the length of said pipes and to assure sufficient airpressure at each jet opening 32.

Figure 6 illustrates a modification, wherein the lower end portions ofthe front and back walls of the hood 30- are bent inwardly and upwardlyof the hood, upon themselves, to form on eachend portion an open-loop31a, preferably triangular in cross-section, with the free end of eachloop welded to the opposite portion of its wall and with one of theirends closedthus forming air-blast conduits, instead of the separatepipes 31, and each having a longitudinal series of space jet openings32a therein to direct jets of air therefrom at about 45 relative to thesurface to be cleaned, as shown.

In order to support the mouthopening 30a of the hood 30 in proper spacedrelation to the surface to be cleaned, caster-wheels 37 are providedforwardly of the traction wheels 1'7. In this embodiment of theinvention, brackets 38 are welded, or otherwise secured, preferably tothe ends of the back wall of the hood that project beyond the impellercasing 23, as shown in Figs. 1, 5 and 6. The brackets 38 extendrearwardly of the hood on opposite sides of the casing 23 so as to bewell within the confines of the lines defining the device; and acaster-wheel 37 is secured to the rear end of each bracket 33,respectively.

It should be pointed out that in some instancesthe vertical back wall ofthe hood 30 and the front wall 23f of the impeller housing may have onewall common to both. Also, it is within the purview of this inventionfor the fan 22 to be arranged on a vertical axis. As shown-in thedrawing, the axis of the fan 22 is a shaft 22a operatively connectedwith the motor 13.

In practice it has been found that for purposes of cleaning docks,floors of trailers, trucks, freight cars, roadway and the like, a fan 12inches in diameter should run at variable speed. from 1500 r.p.m. up,depending entirely on the condition of the floor and the debris to becleaned, and should be run at slower speed for cleaning grass-cuttingsand leaves from a lawn, from 900 rpm. to 1200 rpm. and up, depending onthe moisture content.

From the above it will be apparent that a very simple and novelconstruction has been provided for, so-called, industrial floor cleanersof the vacuum type and that the objects of the invention are attainedthereby.

Having thus described the improvement of the invention and the manner inwhich the same is to beperformed, it is to be understood that minorchanges or modifications may be made in the device without departingfrom the spirit of the invention and that the invention is only to belimited by the scope of the appended claims.

That which is claimed, as new and to be secured by Letters Patent is:

1. A mobile suction cleaner for floors and the like, comprising a wheelsupported platform, an encased suction-blowe'r fan mounted on saidplatform with the shaft of said fan horizontal and having a centralpositioned intake opening in one face thereof and substantially coaxialwith said shaft and a substantially tangential exhaust opening, a hoodcarried on said face of said fan casing and communicating with saidcentral opening and having a downwardly directed intake opening to forma suction mouth overlying the surface to be cleaned,the .front wall ofthe hood being wider than its side walls, a motor mounted onsaid'platform and having an operative connection with the shaft of saidfan, a horizontally disposed arcuate exhaust conduit having one endconnected to the exhaust opening of said suction-blower fan, a trashcollecting receptacle connected to the'other end of said horizontalexhaust conduit, air-blast jetmeans carried at the mouth of said hoodand positioned to direct an air-blast toward the surface to be cleaned,and an air conduit connecting said jet-means with said exhaust conduitat a point on itsgreater arcuate surface about 5 degrees from thebeginning of its arcuate wall of greater radius and in the direction ofthe air blown through said exhaust conduit to allow air pressure, devoidof entrained trash and litter, to flow from said exhaust conduit to saidair-jet conduit.

2. The subject matter of claim 1 wherein said jetmeans comprises two jetconduits extending longitudinally along and-on'opposite lower edgeportions ofsaid hood and having a series of spaced jet-emitting openingstherein and along its length with the jet openings of each arranged todirect their emitted air jets toward the other and with the air jets ofone conduit impinging upon the surface, to be cleaned, at a spaceddistance in front of the point of impingement of the air jets from theother conduit, whereby litter and the like may be lifted or dislodged atits opposite ends by said emitted opposing air jets.

3. A mobile suction cleaner for floors and the like comprising a wheeledsupporting frame, an encased suction-blower fan mounted on saidsupporting frame and having an intake opening and an exhaust opening, arelatively short right-angular elbow conduit connected to said exhaustopening and extending therefrom and having an arcuate wall on itsanterior side, a trash 'collector means: connected to the other end ofsaid elbow conduit, a suction hood communicating with said intakeopening and having a relatively wider downwardly ex-- therein andtherethrough, a plurality of air-jet means ar-- ranged along oppositelower edge portions of said hood to emit jets of air, under pressure,toward each other at an oblique angle to the surface to be cleaned, atake-off conduit communicatively connecting said jet means directly Withsaid elbow conduit at a point on its said anterior arcuate wall butspaced approximately 5 degrees from the beginning of said arcuatesurface, in the direction of flow through said elbow conduit, thatallows air pressure from the exhaust conduit to flow devoid of entrainedlitter to said jet means, a motor mounted on said frame and operativelyconnected to said fan, and means for guiding said wheeled frame.

4. The subject matter of claim 2 wherein the hood is formed of sheetmetal and the lowcr ends of the front and back walls thereof are bentupwardly upon themselves each to form an open-loop with the ends of saidloops sealed against the adjacent portions of its wall thereby toprovide said jet conduits, and wherein the airjet openings are formed inthe inner walls of said open loops.

5. A mobile suction cleaner for floors, docks, pavements and the likecomprising a cleaning head unit including a fan in a circular casinghaving front and back walls, said fan being carried on a horizontallydisposed shaft extending through said back wall and the front wall ofsaid casing being formed with a centrally positioned intake opening andwith a peripherally positioned exhaust opening and carrying thereonoutwardly extending and downwardly diverging walls forming asemi-pyramidal suction hood, the upper end of which is in spaced maskingrelation with said intake opening and its lower end forms a wide suctionmouth; a wheeled platform adapted to support a motor thereon forconnection with said fan shaft, means detachably connecting the backwall of said casing to one end of said platform for supporting saidcleaning head in cleaning position, and handle-bars projectingrearwardly and upwardly from the other end of the said platform; apervious trash collection bag detachably supported at one end by saidhandle-bars; an elbow-shaped exhaust conduit connected to said exhaustopening and extending rearwardly from the cleaning head and having itsrear end detachably connected with the other end of said collector bag;a series of spaced air-jet means carried at the lower edge portions ofthe front and back walls of said hood, respectively, and extendinglongitudinally of said edge portions and arranged to direct theiremitted air-jets downwardly and toward each other at an oblique anglerelative to the surface being cleaned, whereby litter and the like maybe lifted or dislodged at its opposite ends; and means connecting saidair-jet means with said exhaust conduit at a point on its greaterarcuate surface near but spaced from the beginning of said arcuatesurface, in the direction of air flow therethrough, in the order of 5degrees that allows air pressure to flow to said air-jet means devoid ofentrained litter.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS345,610 Wood July 13, 1886 1,998,851 Shields Apr. 23, 1935 2,020,600Becker Nov. 12, 1935 2,039,860 Watts May 5, 1936 FOREIGN PATENTS 534,298Germany Sept. 24, 1931

